R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah shared seven between them to wrap up a dominant series sweep

Shashank Kishore14-Mar-2022
For 173 balls, Dimuth Karunaratne defied India. In constructing a fine 14th Test century, he showed his team-mates hitting your way out of trouble wasn’t the only way to succeed on a tough Bengaluru track that offered sharp turn and variable bounce. Then he got a pearl from Jasprit Bumrah that breached his defences.Even someone as well set as he was couldn’t quite judge the extent of late inward movement on that full delivery, and that was that for Sri Lanka. In the face of a relentless attack, the others proved to be sitting ducks as their high-risk, high-returns strategy fell flat.India wrapped up an emphatic 2-0 series win inside two sessions on the third day at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The series lasted all of six days, with Sri Lanka’s 208 all out in their final innings being their highest total of the lot.The innings promised a lot more, especially after Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis started the day positively. While Mendis’s aggression wasn’t much of a surprise, Karunaratne tried to take a leaf out of Shreyas Iyer’s book early in the day, repeatedly stepping out to negate Jadeja from the rough.In the very first over, he also attempted an uncharacteristic reverse sweep. This wasn’t the stonewaller Karunaratne, who has methodically constructed knocks to be the highest run-getter among openers since 2018. This was Karunaratne trying to throw the oppositions spinners off their settings in the face of a challenging surface.This approach rubbed off on Mendis too, as he stepped out and took R Ashwin on at the other end. The first eight overs of the day produced 42, and suddenly India were searching for answers, even if they knew one wicket could open the doors.In this period, what worked for Sri Lanka was their clarity in committing themselves fully forward or going right back to play the ball. The odd ball scooting low or jumping from the rough didn’t seem to bother them much. Mendis raised his 12th half-century off just 57 balls.R Ashwin had Dhananjaya de Silva caught by Hanuma Vihari at short leg to go past Dale Steyn on the most-Test-wickets chart•BCCIBut the party didn’t last long as he ran down the pitch, only to be deceived by Ashwin’s guile. Stepping out to smother the spin, he was done in by the skid off the pitch as Rishabh Pant effected an excellent stumping. This helped Ashwin equal Dale Steyn’s tally of 439 Test wickets, a day after he went past Kapil Dev’s tally of 434.On a surface that turns big, the most dangerous delivery can often be the one that doesn’t turn. Angelo Mathews found out as much the hard way, stabbing at a Jadeja delivery outside the line only for the ball to sneak through and flatten the stumps. From there on, Sri Lanka were in free fall.Dhanajaya de Silva was out to sharp turn as he lobbed a catch to Hanuma Vihari at short leg as Ashwin went past Steyn. Niroshan Dickwella survived a DRS call for caught behind, but his tendency to run down the pitch and play big shots cost him as he was done in by Axar Patel’s flatter trajectory to be stumped.As all this played out at one end, Karunaratne shelved his enterprising avatar and brought out the hard grind, also to good effect. He played with soft hands, played with his bat close to the body and ensured he didn’t let the spinners dictate terms. The same could hardly be said about the rest of the line-up. Charith Asalanka was the next to go as he lobbed a simple catch to backward short leg.As Karunaratne approached his century, he started to take chances as he was running out of partners. Once into the nineties, he reverse swept for two runs, then brought out a conventional sweep in front of square for four and then, having got to 99 via three singles, brought out a neat flick to the backward-square-leg fence off Bumrah to reach his hundred.No sooner had he celebrated getting to the landmark in what was a terrific knock, did Bumrah bounce back to get him with that magic ball. On “tail dismantle” mode, Bumrah took one more – Suranga Lakmal’s last innings in Test cricket ending with his stumps disturbed – to finish with a match haul of eight. The tame end wasn’t entirely unexpected, but Sri Lanka would be the first to admit they ought to have applied themselves better.This was among the easier series wins for India at home lately and, while clinically dismantling their opponents, they’d ticked plenty of boxes to end a dominant home season on a high. The season had begun with New Zealand being handed defeat across formats, and ended with Sri Lanka being given the same treatment, West Indies having fared no better in between.